Is the Dual Career Agent Causing more Harm than Good?

Agents with two careers are on the rise. Are they harming your reputation? In Stefan Swanepoel’s publication, Trends Report 2010, he calls the real estate licensee with another job the ‘dual career’ agent. That’s what we used to call the ‘part-timer’. Although ‘dual career’ sounds much more important than ‘part-time’, the result is the same: Less time to devote to the consumer. Being pulled in two directions is very difficult. The conflict that an agent feels when he has another job is causing the consumer to rate our service lower than ever before.

Dual Careerists Are a Growing Trend

More and more real estate agents are getting second jobs to make ends meet. In fact, the 2009 National Association of Realtors’ Member Profile says that 26% of Realtors stated that real estate was not their only occupation. (I’m sure that many more licensees who aren’t Realtors have other major sources of income). In addition, less than half of all Realtors surveyed reported that real estate was their primary source of household income.

Is the Dual Careerist Doing the Industry More Harm than Good?

Having been an agent, manager and owner a long time, I know how difficult it is at times for an agent to ‘hang in there’, put their heads down, and keep working through tough times. It’s a great temptation, and a relief for many to take that other job just to ‘tide them over’. From the broker’s perspective, too, keeping the agent at least licensed with the brokerage to get that one transaction seems to be better than losing that one transaction.

Several problems accrue, when the agent gets another job:

1. The agent’s mind, energy, and dollars drift away from the needs of the consumer because the agent must focus on another job
2. The agent can’t keep up on the technical, legal, and business developments
3. The consumer demands just can’t be met when the agent is unavailable for large blocks of time
4. The broker must carry a much bigger responsibility for the agent’s transactions

If you are a broker who finds more and more of your agents getting other jobs, ask yourself, “What do I need to do to get these agents’ careers off the ground so they don’t need second jobs?” Now, get the game plans and coaching expertise you need to get on the ‘offensive’ with agents’ careers.